Tata Steel 2011

For someone perhaps best known for spectacular failure – losing 6:0 to Bobby Fischer – Mark Taimanov has had the most successful of lives. A top Soviet grandmaster and a successful concert pianist, he’s now the happy octogenarian father of 6-year-old twins. He talks about his life and contemporary chess.

Hikaru Nakamura’s tournament victory was described as “the birth of a supernova” by Yury Vasiliev in two final reports from the Tata Steel 2011 Tournament. The Russian journalist was on the ground in Wijk aan Zee to provide photo reports and comments from players and observers throughout the event.

When Hikaru Nakamura took a draw against Wang Hao all eyes turned to Nepomniachtchi-Anand – could the World Champion find a win to snatch tournament victory? Despite the computer evaluations in his favour the answer turned out to be no, but Sergey Shipov’s live commentary captured the tension perfectly.

When Sergey Shipov saw Nakamura – Kramnik was heading, as the Russians say, “for a drawing harbour”, he abandoned ship and started commentating on Anand – Giri instead. It proved the perfect choice, as 16-year-old Anish Giri played “the game of his life, but he couldn’t bring it to its logical conclusion”.

After Nakamura’s impressive win against Nepomniachtchi, he was quoted by the official site as saying: “People may say I’m an aggressive player but it was clear ‘Nepo’ was the one out for a kill today”. Sergey Shipov agreed, even mentioning a “grenade launcher”, an item perhaps rare in the annals of chess commentary.

Levon Aronian is one of a kind – not only a phenomenally gifted chess player, but also a colourful and quirky character. Who better, then, to subject to a “people’s interview” as part of the Crestbook “KC-Conference” project? Seize the chance to ask him your own questions today!

Quick tip for anyone playing White against Ian Nepomniachtchi: when down on time in an equal position don’t even dream of refusing a draw by repetition! Wang Hao tried it, then Anish Giri (remember Gandalf?) and today Magnus Carlsen was the latest victim. Sergey Shipov described a wonderful game.

The encounter between the front-runners, Hikaru Nakamura and Vishy Anand, didn’t disappoint. Nakamura’s unorthodox opening play led to a dangerous position that Sergey Shipov, commentating for Crestbook, described as “beautiful”. Anand’s failure to exploit his advantage means we now have four leaders tied on +3!

Sergey Shipov introduced today’s game by saying we needed a Terminator to deal with Hikaru Nakamura’s run-away tournament lead. His opponent, Magnus Carlsen, proved up to the task, winning in devastating style after a tense middlegame phase in which it was never fully clear where exactly Nakamura went wrong.

Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand didn’t exactly set the world on fire in round 7. Their crossing of the tournament’s “equator” saw becalmed seas, despite Magnus’ “random opening generator” picking e4, and Vishy choosing the Sicilian, “a great opening for an adventure novel” (all the quotes are Shipov’s!).